Jones, Starling vie for 9th District council seat

In Southside’s 9th District, sidewalks are top of mind for both sitting Councilwoman Nicole Jones and her challenger in this year’s race, Stephanie Starling. 

“I know what the people are saying. The people are saying, we need sidewalks. We want sidewalks,” said Jones, who was appointed to represent the 9th District in December after former Councilman Mike Jones (no relation) stepped down to become a state delegate. 

While walkability is a talking point for candidates citywide this election season, it’s a particularly pressing one in the 9th, an area almost entirely made up of land annexed from Chesterfield County in the 1970s that still lags other parts of the city in infrastructure. 

“We still don’t have sidewalks on Jahnke Road. We still don’t have sidewalks on Hull Street. … These are major thoroughfares in South Richmond,” said Starling. “They want it to be a walkable city. Those are some of the things that we need to make it walkable.” 

From there, the two candidates’ views diverge. Jones is calling for a comprehensive study of where sidewalks exist in the 9th to determine which projects should be the highest priority for the city — an evaluation she said has never been done in the district. 

“We need to also determine as a city what areas have the highest walkable traffic, so that we know we're accommodating those folks. But then there may be other areas where we need to accommodate them in a different kind of way,” she said. “And so I think it's not a one-size-fits-all.” 

Starling in contrast said that “if we study again, that means we’re failing.” 

“There’s enough studies that have gone on,” she said. “We’ve had 54 years to get it right. We have not.” 

The disagreement between the candidates is one of many in a contest that has seen Starling accuse Jones, the deputy director of nonprofit Art 180 and the former School Board representative for the 9th, of unfairly seeking the City Council seat after her appointment last December. 

Starling, a longtime Verizon employee who sought the same position in December but lost out to Jones, said it is tradition for anyone appointed to a vacated seat to not run for that seat in the next election because “it gives you an unfair advantage.” 

“Traditions are not meant to be broken,” she said. 

Jones said that while she “cannot speak to the longstanding traditions of city council appointments,” both she and Starling publicly stated during interviews for the 9th District appointment that if they were chosen for the position, they also planned to run to keep it in this November’s race. 

“I’m unclear if we both answered yes that we would run, why it’s now an issue that I am following through on what I said I was going to do,” Jones said in an email. 

Jones 

Prior to joining Art 180, Jones worked at multiple state agencies, including the Library of Virginia. While she has been serving on City Council a year and spent three years on the School Board, this is her first competitive race. 

In 2020, former School Board Chairwoman Linda Owen announced she would not seek reelection and endorsed Jones as her successor. Jones ran unopposed and spent three years on the body, where she was part of a four-member minority that frequently supported the policies of Superintendent Jason Kamras, including his administration’s plan to rezone River City Middle School to alleviate overcrowding. 

When Mike Jones was elected to the House of Delegates, Jones applied, saying she saw herself as a “bridge” between the School Board and City Council. During her 10 months on council, she said she’s done that, pushing for additional funding to the schools and developing a strong relationship with her successors.  

Starling has accused Jones of having left 9th District schools “in a crisis,” saying she departed with multiple schools unaccredited. “What did you do for three years that you couldn’t get those schools to be accredited?” she asked. (Currently, four of the district’s six schools are fully accredited after G.H. Reid Elementary gained the designation this year; Miles Jones Elementary and River City Middle are considered “accredited with conditions,” a label indicating multiple issues of concern.) 

Jones argued that her departure “wasn’t about walking away from these challenges but rather about leveraging a new platform to advocate for sustainable support and resources that our schools need.” 

“School accreditation involves many factors beyond the school board’s immediate control, including state funding policies and broader social and economic influences,” she said. 

In an interview, she repeatedly emphasized the need for the city to formulate “holistic” solutions to problems like affordable housing that ensure changes remain sustainable in the long run. 

“Because affordable, specifically deep affordable, what are the resources that come with that?” she asked. “What does all of that entail, and how is that going to help lift families up in a way that supports them and the communities that they live in?”

If elected to City Council this November, Jones said her priorities would include not only addressing the district’s aging infrastructure but also increasing citizen engagement and providing more resources to seniors, including tax relief, to ensure they can age in place.  

“I think a lot of challenges that we hear when we are [knocking] on the doors is because people aren’t informed,” she said. “And so how do we ensure that they are aware of what’s going on in the neighborhoods? … There’s no real way for them to be connected unless you go to the city’s website.” 

The need to grow the 9th District while also providing stability to current residents is a theme she’s emphasizing — as is a view of the 9th District that looks at “what was, what is, and what’s emerging.” 

“Yes, we’ve had a past that wasn’t that great,” she said. “Present moment, I’ve only been here 10 months, but presently, we’re doing some things. Future — allow me that, and we’re going to see more stuff happen.” 

Jones has raised over $18,000 for her campaign, including contributions from state Sen. Lamont Bagby and the Richmond Association of Realtors. Her endorsements include several members of the Richmond School Board, New Virginia Majority, several local SEIU chapters and the Home Building Association of Richmond.

Starling 

A native Richmonder who has been involved in civic associations and the local Democratic Party for more than a decade, Starling has in recent years become more interested in public office, partly, she said, at the urging of Richmond Del. Betsy Carr. She applied not only to fill the 9th District City Council seat last year but also the 9th District School Board seat after Jones’ departure. 

The latter effort, she said, was intended to give her “insight into the inner workings of the division and the support provided by city council.” 

“My ultimate goal has always been to serve on city council, and this opportunity would have given me access to budget discussions and other important information, similar to the advantages held by the council appointee in her November run,” she said. 

Besides the 9th District’s infrastructure challenges — the result of what she described as a string of “broken promises” by prior city administrations — she also cited school accreditation and homelessness as issues she would prioritize if elected this November. 

While Richmond Public Schools has touted an array of improvements in recent months, ranging from higher SOL scores to lower chronic absenteeism and rising graduation rates, Starling expressed some skepticism about that view. She noted that an investigation into the fatal Huguenot High School graduation shooting in June 2023 revealed that in some instances, school officials relaxed requirements to ensure students graduated. That, she said, could “skew” numbers.

“I want to make sure that these kids are being set up for the future,” she said. “Because once they leave Richmond and they go off to school, I don’t want them to fail.” 

To address homelessness, Starling said Richmond needs to provide more shelters and housing for people who lack it, asking why the city could sell a building to Planned Parenthood for $10 but not repurpose other properties it owns to provide shelter. 

“What are we doing with our Coliseum?” she asked. “We could have been using that until we figured out what we were going to do. … We should have been prepared for this.” 

Richmond last week formally launched a new city-run housing resource center on the Northside that can provide 150 year-round beds and help direct people to services. 

Starling has also been critical of what she called “wasteful” spending by the city, highlighting in particular $172,000 spent on the People’s Evolution Concert in the 9th District last year, a project backed by Jones. 

“How does that benefit the citizens of the 9th District?” she asked. “If you wanted to spend that money, we have so many people that are homeless in this area.” 

Jones defended the concert, which she called “a citywide celebration of Richmond’s rich history and vibrant culture rooted in the 9th.” 

“When leaders say that our community has waited two decades for something like this, it’s unfortunate that anyone would think the investment was wasted on the very people they aim to represent and whose voices brought this to life,” she said. “The 9th District deserves the same opportunities to unite and celebrate as any other district.” 

Starling has raised over $8,000 toward her campaign. Endorsements include the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, the Richmond Crusade for Voters and the PAC for the Richmond Education Association, the local teachers union.